Better Business Founder

Making Great Products from Recycled Plastics by Tammy Ven Dange (part 2)

Episode Summary

Today’s episode is the 2nd part of the conversation with Tammy Ven Dange, Founder and CEO of The Refoundry. If you’ve missed the 1st part, you still can go ahead with this episode and go back to the first part later. Tammy is a former animal charity CEO turned social entrepreneur with a focus on recycled plastics. The mission of The Refoundry, the company she founded, is to make great and useful products with recycled plastics and to create a demand for this material that would otherwise go to landfill. If you want to improve your understanding of how you could better manage the business side of your mission-driven company, you will definitely enjoy listening to this episode. In this 2nd part of our conversation, Tammy will share with us some very interesting concepts and strategies, ranging from the cashflow requirement of a product-based business model to the design and the life-cycle of a product, among many other useful ideas and concepts. Stay tuned and enjoy the rest of our conversation with Tammy Ven Dange.

Episode Notes

02:00 Cashflow and investments, differences between a product-based business and a service-based business.

07:00 When it comes to promoting the business, no one's going to promote it as well as the founder.

08:30 Why Tammy launched her podcast, Plastics Revolution

12:30 Challenges and opportunities for businesses to take part in the sustainability movement. Design with sustainability in mind

16:00 Advice to mission-driven entrepreneur: consider the whole life-cycle

20:30 Dreams for The Refoundry: create a demand for recycled plastics

23:00 Dreams with The Refoundry: I want us to be a good example and a champion for being good stewards of our resources.

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NUGGETS:

  1. Product-based business requires higher investment upfront compared to service-based business
  2. The founder of a business is always the best promoter of the product
  3. Sustainability starts with the design
  4. Consider the entire life-cycle of the product: material sourcing, logistics, packaging, disposal...etc
  5. At each step, try to be intentional and strategic in order to reduce the environmental footprint

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CONNECT with Tammy:

To find out more about Tammy Ven Dange: https://tvendange.com/

To find out more about The Refoundry: https://refoundry.com.au/
Tammy’s podcast: Plastics Revolution

Connect with Tammy on socials @tvendange

 

Books mentioned:

“Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman” by Yvon Chouinard

“Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike” by Phil Knight

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Host: Leekei Tang

Contact: hello (at) betterbusinessfounder.com

Music credits: Mister Sunny Face by Wayne Jones / Blue Skies by Silent Partner / Happy Ukulele by Scott Holmes